http://cobellsettlement.com/class/ask_elouise.php

It is our hopes that Congress will pass the enabling legislation and the process can move forward.

For all my criticisms of the Obama administration they have made an effort here to clear up one of the festering wounds in the relations between the Native Americans and the federal government. I just wish the amount settled on was much closer to the real damage done to the tribes. We can send billions overseas but we can’t do right by the poorest and most under represented population in this country. Now Congress has to do the right thing and clear this settlement out fast.

Congratulations to Ms. Cobell and God bless you.

So much for the Obama administration providing “hope and change” in Federal-Native American relations. It’s the “same old, same old” all over again. The government could settle this in a heartbeat by offering a fair settlement to the plaintiffs but, and this is the third administration that has been dealing with this, the only attitude is to stonewall and offer nothing. Let’s hope the Court of Appeals does the right thing.

In an ominous note regarding the case, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, Mark Levy, committed suicide by gunshot just a few days ago. I hope there will be an investigation of this.

Here isthe Indian Trust website: http://www.indiantrust.com/

The above quote is from my.barackobama.com/page/content/firstamissues#sovereignty

If the president is really serious about keeping that promise he could very well start by settling the Cobell vs. Salazar case that is still in its agonizing 13 year journey through the federal court system. Despite statements that he wanted to settle the case President Obama’s new secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, is now backtracking and saying that he has to wait for the outcome of the court of appeals hearing scheduled in May. What a bunch of baloney! If the administration wanted to settle it could do so tomorrow by contacting the plaintiff and arriving at an agreement. A radical change for the better in how the government deals with Native Americans would be a good thing and a good way to start would be for the administration to do the right thing in this case. I don’t think it will happen though but there is still hope.

Two more last comments. This administration and previous administrations have absolutely no problem with giving away billions to other countries, much of which goes into the hands of corrupt and greedy officials with no sense of social conscience for their own people. Billions more have been funneled to foreign banks by means of the recent bailouts. Is it so hard to do the right thing by the remnants of the First Nations of this country?? And, considering the treatment given to the Arapahos and the Cheyennes by the State of Colorado, it would be nice if Secretary Salazar, who is a former Senator from Colorado, could make a step towards wiping that blot out by sitting down and coming to an equitable agreement with the plaintiff.

For more information go to the Cobell vs. Salazar home page.

In a previous post I stated that the plaintiffs were offered a $7 billion settlement by the federal government. That statement was based on information from media sources and since has proven to be false. The government never made a settlement offer at any price according to the plaintiffs and they should know.

When will the day come when the Native People in this country get a fair deal?

Here is the plaintiff’s web site:  http://www.indiantrust.com/index.cfm

I wish the plaintiffs all success.

At this point it seems that the plaintiffs should have settled for the $7 billion figure that was offered in settlement by the government a while back but even that was way too low.

I am so outraged by this that it is hard to write coherently about it so I will simply close by saying that if the plaintiffs choose to appeal I wish them all success.

To read about the background of the case go to the plaintiff’s web site.

Finally in January of this year US District Court Judge Robertson ruled that things were such a mess that completion of the required accounting was impossible and a hearing to establish a remedy would be scheduled and in March of this year the plaintiffs, in a filing, asked the court to $58 billion into the Indian Trust. Both Congress and the Bush Administration fell short in their offerings, Congress offering $8 billion and the administration offering $3.5 billion. The judge then scheduled a trial at the federal courthouse in Washington DC, to establish “how much money the federal government collected from leases of millions of acres of
Indian lands and failed to promptly disburse to upwards of 500,000 native American beneficiaries.”
The judge wants to have the trial finished and an order issued to the government as to how much is owed to the plaintiffs. Maybe this time a measure of justice will come to the Native Americans involved.

Here is a link to the Department of Justice site with trial transcripts.  (http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/)

Here are some of the events in the ongoing court case during the Clinton administration:

1996 – original case filed,

1996 – The US District Court orders Interior and Treasury to produce trust-related documents for the plaintiffs,

1998 – Nearly two years after the suit was filed, the Court again orders the government to produce the relevant documents and records,

1998 – Treasury’s Financial Management Service destroys 162 boxes of documents stored in a Maryland warehouse, at the same time government lawyers are telling the Court they are looking for the records,

1998 – The court issues an order to show cause why Interior Secretary Babbitt, Treasury Secretary Rubin and Assistant Interior Secretary Gover should not be held in contempt of court for failure to produce the documents. Babbitt, Rubin and Gover are found in contempt by Judge Lamberth,

1999 – 16 weeks after the original order government lawyers notify the Court that Treasury destroyed 162 boxes of documents.

More to come! Stay tuned.

In all of the following posts about the problem of Indian Trust Monies I have gotten much information, used some direct quotes and paraphrased others from the following web site: <http://www.indiantrust.com/index.cfm>. I encourage all to visit the site. I don’t think you can read it without getting quite angry.

I have been needing to write about something that is one of the worst things our government has done and that is the mismanagement and outright theft of the trust lands and money that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has supposed to have been managing all this time. They have managed it alright, but not in the interests of the native peoples that were supposed to be protected. The situation is so bad that that US District Judge James Robinson, who is the presiding judge in the case of “Cobell vs. Kempthorne” has stated that an historical accounting of the Indian Trust is impossible. This case has been in the court system for 11 years now and was started by Elouise Cobell, a Blackfoot from Montana sued the federal government in a class action lawsuit to force an accounting of billions of dollars belonging to some half million American Indians and their heirs, and held in trust by the federal government since the late 1800′s.

More later on the how the Clinton administration, who touted itself as the “most ethical administration in American history” handled the case.